Memory: Factors effecting EWT, misleading information Flashcards
What are two examples of misleading information?
Leading questions
Post event discussion
Define ‘misleading information’
Incorrect information given to an eyewitness usually after the event
Who researched into leading questions?
Loftus and Palmer (1974)
Outline Loftus and Palmer’s 1974 study
45 students watched film clips of car accidents then were questioned
In critical question, participants asked to describe how fast cars were travelling
5 groups, each given different verb in question. (Hit, contacted, bumped, collided and smashed).
What were the 5 verbs used in Loftus and Palmer’s study?
Hit
Contacted
Bumped
Collided
Smashed
What were the findings of Loftus and Palmer’s study?
Verb contacted had mean estimate speed of 31.8mph
Smashed had 4p.5mph
Leading question biased eyewitnesses recall of event
What does the response-bias explanation suggest?
Wording of question has no real effect on participants memories but just influences how they decide to answer
What does the substitute explanation propose?
Wording of leading question changes participants memory of film clip
Why does Loftus and Palmer’s second study support the substitution explanation?
Because participants who originally heard Smashed were more likely to report seeing broken glass (there was none) than those who heard hit.
Critical verb altered memory of incident
Who researched into post-event discussion?
Gabbert et al (2003)
Outline Gabbert et al’s research
Studied participants in pairs
Each participant watched video of same crime from different point of views
Participants then discussed what they’d seen before individually completing test of recall
Outline the findings of gabbert et al’s study - what was evident within them?
71% of participants mistakenly recalled aspects of event picked up in discussion but not seen in video
Corresponding figure in control group with no PED was 0%
Evidence of memory conformity
What is memory conformity?
Witnesses conform either to win social approval or they believe other to be right
Actual memory remains unchaged
What is memory contamination?
When cowitnesses to a crime discuss together, their EWT’s may become altered because they combine information from others with their own memories
Name one strength of research into misleading information
Real world application in criminal justice system
Consequences of inaccurate EWT severe
Loftus (1975) believes leading questions have distorting effect on memory - so much so that police officers have ensure their questions are phrased correctly when interviewing eyewitnesses
Psychologists asked to act as expert witnesses in court trials + explain limits of EWT to juries
Shows psychologists can help to improve legal system by protecting innocent people from faulty convictions based on inaccurate EWT
Name one limitation of the substitution explanation
Evidence against it
Sunderland and Hayne (2001)
Showed participants video clip
When participants asked misleading questions, recall more accurate for central details than peripheral ones
Presumably, participants attention focused on central features of event and these memories were relatively resistant to misleading information
Suggests original memories for central details survived and were not distorted, an outcome not predicted by the substitution explanation
Name a limitation of research into misleading information
Demand characteristics
Zaragoza and McCloskey (1989)
Argue answers given by participants in lab studies are due to demand characteristics
Participants want to be useful and please researchers so they guess when asked a question they don’t know the answer to
